NANOCOMPOSITE ELECTRO-CONTACT MATERIAL AND METHOD FOR PRODUCTION THEREOF Russian patent published in 2016 - IPC H01H1/25 B82B1/00 C22C1/04 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to electrical engineering and nanotechnology, in particular, to a nanocomposite material based on copper (Cu) for production of power arcing contacts in switches of powerful electric circuits and vacuum arc-quenching chambers and production method thereof. Nanocomposite electro-contact material on copper basis consists of a partially disordered copper-based matrix, in which clusters of high-melting particles sized less than 5 nm are distributed, herewith the content of high-melting particles ranges from 20 to 80 wt%. High-melting particles used may be particles of chromium or tungsten or molybdenum. Method of producing a nanocomposite electro-contact material involves mechanical treatment of mixes of metals in a high-energy planetary ball mill followed by solid-phase sintering of the produced activated mixture. High-energy treatment is performed in argon atmosphere at the weight ratio of balls and initial powders of 20:1-40:1, the planetary mill planetary disc rotation speed of 694-900 rpm and the duration of treatment not more than 90 minutes. Sintering the obtained nanocomposite particles with the size of refractory metal less than 5 nm is performed by spark plasma sintering method, herewith vacuum is created in the chamber or an inert gas atmosphere and through the sintered sample the pulse electric current is passed of 1,000-5,000 A under the load up to 50 MPa. Samples sintering temperature does not exceed 1,000 °C at the process duration of not more than 15 minutes.

EFFECT: provided are higher hardness, reduced porosity and specific electric resistance of samples.

3 cl, 1 dwg, 3 ex